Crossword Genius

Big cheese to consume gradually on way to work? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

supremo

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'big cheese' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'consume gradually on way to work?' is the wordplay.
'consume gradually' becomes 'sup' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' becomes 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to').
'way to work?' becomes 'MO' (modus operandi).
'sup'+'re'+'mo'='SUPREMO'

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for supremo that I've seen before include "Big cheese, head honcho" , "Big fish" , "top boss" , "C-in-C" , "Overall chief" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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